Website Information Architecture

Information Architecture is a process "that clarifies the mission and vision for the site, balancing the needs of its sponsoring organisation and the needs of its audiences. [It] determines what content and functionality the site will contain. [It] specifies how users will find information in the site by defining its organisation, navigation, labelling, and search systems. And [it] maps out how the site will accommodate change and growth over time".

Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville

Information architecture is in essence the structured organisation of information (content publication and tasks) that will facilitate:

Being able to find that which one seeks, whether known or unknown
Publishing content in the correct place
Creating a content inventory - monitoring content need and managing the growth/redundancy of content

Some excellent guidance is provided by the LAWs Information Architecture and Standards Outputs.

Elements of Information Architecture include:

Please see more here on taxonomy and navigation.

Please see more here on understanding visitor needs.

Please read here about the website content lifecycle.

Please read here about a process for a website usability review.

Please see also Readability.